Measuring device



.L. M. M CORMICK MEASURING DEVICE -May 11', 1943.

Fild June so, 1941 Patented May 11, 1943 MEASURING DEVICE Lewis M.McCormick, Palo Alto, Calif., assignor to The Scholl Mfg. 00., Inc.,Chicago, 111., a corporation of New York s Application June 30,1941,'Serlal,No. 400,447

1 Claim.

This invention relates to improvements in a measuring device, and moreparticularly to a measuring device highly desirable for use in measuringthe feet or other extremities of the body to denote the size of someappliance to be attached to the foot or other extremity, although theinvention may have other uses and purposes as will be apparent to oneskilled in the art.

In the past, the common and generally accepted way of denoting the sizeof a foot has been by way of reference to the size of shoe fitting thatfoot. Whil this procedure gives in general an approximation ofreasonable accuracy as to size, it falls far short of being sufficientlyaccurate to denote the proper size of an appliance to be attached to thefoot or associated with the foot, especially when the appliance is inthe nature of a foot corrective appliance for disposition Within a shoe.Many such corrective appliances are intimately attached to the nakedfoot, attached to the foot outside of the hosiery, or placed within ashoe for the foot to press against. In either event, it is highlydesirable and sometimes essential to have the proper size of correctiveappliance to more than just a reasonable degree of exactness. Feet varyin ,width and length to such a considerable extent, that a treatmentappliance for application to a particularpart of a foot cannot beselected for fitwith the desired degree of accuracy merely by relianceupon the size of shoe commonly worn by the particular patient.

With the foregoing in mind, it is an important object of the presentinvention to provide a measuring device capable of readily and easilygiving the exact size of a corrective appliance to properly fit aparticular foot or other extremity.

It is also an object of this invention to provide a measuring device soshaped as to intimately fit the part of the foot or other extremitybeing measured.

Still a further object of this invention is the provision of a measuringdevice highly desirable for measuring the human foot and capable ofindicating the proper size of a corrective appliance to be applied tothe foot, the measuring device being shaped in keeping with thecorrective appliance to be used and fitting the foot in the a projectionof: the foot, such as. the first metatarsal head; to insure accuratepositioning of the device during ,use. V, While some of the more salientfeatures, characteristics and advantages of the present invention havebeen above pointed out, otherswill become apparent from the followingdisclosures, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which1 j Figure 1 is a fragmentaryv plan'view of a'measuring device mbodyingprinciples of the present invention ;v t

Figure 2 is a reducedlfragmentary plan view illustrating the device ofFig. 1 in use in measuring a part of the human foot; and

Figure 3 is a fragmentary plan view showing a corrective appliance inposition; on the human foot, the size of which appliance hasbeenaccurately determined by the use of the present invention asindicated in Fig. 2.1

7 As shown on the drawing:

;In the illustrated embodiment of this invention there is shown ameasuring device in the form of a tape or the equivalent, generallyindicated by numeral 5, and which may be made of paper, fabric, leather,or any othersuitable material.

One end portion 6 of the tape may be provided with any suitable indiciaor advertising material, such as the illustration 1 indicating theproper use of the device. Nearthisend -6 of the'tape is suitablebaseindicia,-which may be in the nature of a starting line 8. Inside of thebase line 8 the tape is preferably widened as indicated at 9 and thisportion of the tape is preferably provided with a suitable aperture oropening l0,

preferably generally egg-shaped, which aperture is centrally disposed toleave a solid band on each side thereof. When used as a foot measuringdevice, especially for transverse measurement in the region of themetatarsal arch, the opening I0 is preferably sized to accommodate thefirst metatarsal head or big toe joint ll of a foot l2, as indicatedmore particularly in Fig. 2. A band portion of the tape will be disposedon each side of the protruding metatarsal head H, and thus the tape ispositively held in the correct position for taking th measurement.

On the opposite side of the widened portion 9 from the base line 8, thetape is reduced in width and extends in the form of a relatively narrowelongated portion I 3 which is preferably narrower than the end portion6 and which carries thereon a series of size indicating indicia l4. Eachsize indicium preferably has associated therewith a line l5 extendingtransversely across the tape for registry with the aforesaid base line 8in taking a measurement.

In use, it is a simple expedient to place the tape around the anteriorportion of the foot as indicated in Fig. 2. The end portion 6 ispreferably laid on the top of the foot so that the base line 8 isdisposed adjacent the second metatarsal head. The tape is then broughtaround and beneath the footso that the opening is occupied by the firstmetatarsal head, as above explained. The

elongated portion l3 of the tape extends beneath the foot, and aroundthe outside of the foot a'd- J'acent the fifth metatarsal head, thence,over."v the top of the foot until one of the lines I registers with thebase line 8. When one of the lines registers with the base line 8 afterthe tape has been drawn snugly, but preferably not tightly,

provided a novel foot measuring device, highly .desirable for use inconnection with the indication of the proper size of a foot correctiveapchance to be used with a particular foot, the dearound the foot, thenumber associated with that is highly desirable for indicating theproper size I of a correction appliance such as that illustrated,described and claimed in Lewis M. McCormick Letters Patent No.1,898,092, entitled Arch support retainer, issued February 21, 1933. InFig.

3 I have illustrated such a corrective appliance in I? position on thefoot l2, and it Will be seen that the appliance includes a relativelynarrow band portion 16 extending'across the top of the foot. Adjacentthis band portion 16 the device is split into two spaced band portions Hand I8 defining an aperture I9 therebetween for the reception of thefirst metatarsal head I I in the same manner as above described inconnection with the measuring device. on the opposite side of the bandportion Hi the device continues around the-fifth metatarsal head asindicated at 20 and on the underside of the foot 9. suitablemetatarsal-arch supporting pad (hot illustrated) may be incorpo'rated inthe appliance. I

It will be noted that the shape of the measuring device is in keepingwith the shape of the cor- In denoting -vice giving an accuratemeasurement in keeping with the subsequent fit of the correctiveappliance, being simple in construction, economical to manufacture, andusable with great facility.

It will, of course, be understood that various details of constructionmay be varied through a wire range without departing from the principlesof this invention and it is, therefore, not the purpose to limit thepatent granted hereon otherwise than necessitated by the scope of theappended claim.

I claim as my invention:

A device adapted 'for measuring a human foot in the region of themetatarsal arch which comprises a tape of a length to more than encirclethe foot transversely, said tape having an intermediate portion definingan aperture adapted to receive the big toe joint of a human foot, afirst end portion extending from one end of said intermediate portionadapted to extend over the top of the foot when the intermediate portionis fitted around the big toe joint and a second end portion extendingfrom the other end of the intermediate portion adapted to be wrappedunder and over the foot to overlie the first end portion,

said second end portion being narrower than the first end portion, abase marking indicia on the first end portion adapted to projectlaterally beyond the second end portion when the latter is superimposedthereon, and a series of size indicia on the second end portion forcooperating with the base indicia to indicate the size of the footportion being measured.

LEWIS M. MCCORMICK.

